Due to the situation in the Zenica Brown Coal Mine, the Steering Committee of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Mine Workers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a decision to organize a protest that will be held on Tuesday, August 1, in front of the building of the Public Enterprise Elektroprivreda BiH in Sarajevo – the president of that union confirmed Sinan Husić.
He reminds that due to the unpaid salary for June and the allowance for a hot meal for the month of May, the Zenica miners stopped production on Tuesday, July 25 in the second shift, when a group of 30 miners decided not to leave the “Raspotočje” pit where they were spent two nights.
“We managed to get the miners out of the pit yesterday, but production in that mine has not been restored. The protest will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and union members of all seven mines from the JPBiH Concern will participate in it. We are organizing the protest because the JP EPBiH ignored the conclusions, which were agreed at yesterday’s meeting between representatives of the FBiH Government and SSRRFBiH,” said Husić for Fena news agency.
He states that according to the Agreement signed on July 3, the Zenica miners should have received a reduced salary by July 25, but that this did not happen.
He adds, they had a similar situation recently, when they had agreed on almost the same conclusions with the City of Zenica for the unblocking of accounts and when they had the support of JP EPBiH, while this time they have no understanding from the current management of the governing company of seven coal mines in the FBiH.
Elektroprivreda Bosnia and Herzegovina says that the payment of salaries is not their responsibility, but the responsibility of the director of the Zenica Brown Coal Mine. When it comes to the announced protests, the director told Federal Television that no amount of pressure will force the Management of Elektroprivreda to act illegally.